James G. Johnson and Barbara A. Johnson v. The People of the State of California

In state court proceedings, the Johnsons were charged in Alameda County, California, with fifteen counts of grand theft, violations of section 487 of California’s Penal Code. Having sought unsuccessfully to challenge the prosecutions in California’s appellate courts, they removed the actions to the District Court. They were also charged with state criminal offenses of a similar type in the Superior Court of Contra Costa County, California. Petitions to bar these prosecutions were also denied by California’s appellate courts, and they, too, were removed to the District Court. The District…